Heretofore, a conventional sorting system for sorting articles being conveyed on one conveyor onto another conveyor, chute, or similar, disposed in a crossing relation to the one conveyor has been disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 41700/95. In this known sorting system, a plurality of direction changing wheels, which are arranged transversely of an article sorting conveyor and which are capable of turning right and left, project from the conveyance surface of the conveyor so as to face in a specific direction, thereby sorting each article passing over the direction changing wheels so as to advance in the specific direction.
In the sorting system disclosed in the above Japanese utility model publication 41700/95 a mechanism is used which, at the time of sorting articles, causes the plurality of direction changing wheels, arranged transversely of the conveyor, to move simultaneously upward from the conveyance surface of the conveyor and at the same time causes the wheels to turn. Further, using a flexible round belt, a rotating force is transmitted to each such vertically movable direction changing wheel. Consequently, the problem arises that the structure is complicated.
Besides, the round belt becomes slack in an early stage of the sorting operation due to the repeated ascending and descending motions of each direction changing wheel, so that variations occur in the driving force among the direction changing wheels, which variations may obstruct the sorting operation. In addition, since the direction changing wheels are arranged only in one row transversely of the conveyor, the problem arise that the motion of each article becomes unstable during sorting.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, the sorting and discharging device of the present invention includes a plurality of sorting rollers corresponding to the direction changing wheels are arranged in both a conveyance direction and a transverse direction of an article conveyance path. The sorting rollers are respectively supported by roller supporting frames which are capable of turning about a vertical axis and which charge the direction of the sorting rollers simultaneously. The lower portions of the outer peripheral surfaces of the sorting rollers are arranged in each row so as to be in the transverse direction of the article conveyance path and are brought into abutment with a line shaft which is driven rotatively by a drive source and are thereby simultaneously rotated frictionally.
The sorting and discharging device is simple in structure and can perform the sorting operation quickly and positively. However, since the driving force of the line shaft is transmitted to the sorting rollers while the rotational axis of the sorting rollers and the rotational axis of the line shaft are inclined with respect to each other during sorting, slipping occurs between the sorting rollers and the line shaft, with an excessive load being exerted between the two. Thus, the sorting rollers develop wear and it is necessary to use a motor of a large driving force as the drive source.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and provide a sorting and discharging device with reduced wear of the sorting rollers and little power loss and capable of performing an efficient sorting operation.